Ancient gem discovery could be a 'time machine' in the future

According to Science Alert, new research led by physicist Sai Kiran Rajedran from the University of St Andrews (Scotland, UK) has presented a special stone found at an ancient quarry in Namibia, containing crystals Special copper oxide body, extremely high quality.

Crystals extracted from ancient gems can be polished and thinned to less than the width of a human hair, then sandwiched between two mirrors, forming a "light trap".

An ancient gem in Namibia is a treasure to science

This copper oxide is a superconductor, allowing electrons to move with absolutely no resistance, containing giant Rydberg excitons. Exciton is a bound state of an electron and an electron hole, attracted to each other by the Coulomb electrostatic force. It is electrically neutral and has the ability to "pair" with light.

It will help create Rydberg polarizers, a type of large particle that is a hybrid of light and matter. This strange series of particles is considered to be the key to future quantum computers. It will be applied in quantum circuits to help quantum computers store, process and transmit information at the speed of light.

The advent of quantum computers using this type of particle will bring exponential improvements in computing power, helping them to solve extremely complex calculations, beyond the range that humans can reached today, making a leap forward in science and technology.

The authors note that the methods outlined will need to be refined, including how to use hybrid particles in quantum circuits. But importantly they had the basics.